Wednesday, June 04, 2014Last Update: 9:53 AM PT

Police Rough Up a Man for Filming Them

ST. LOUIS (CN) - A man who was roughed up for videotaping police on the street sued the City of St. Charles in a constitutional complaint in Federal Court. Kyle Hamilton claims in the lawsuit that he "believed the police were using excessive force" with a young woman who was crying on Main Street in St. Charles last August. "Hamilton recognized [defendant Officer] Jane Roe because he recalled seeing her use what he considered to be excessive force against other individuals in the past," he says in the complaint. Hamilton began recording the incident, upon which a mounted police officer, defendant John Doe, approached. This officer grabbed Hamilton by the shirt collar. "Doe held Hamilton's shirt collar, choking him, bruising his neck, and ripping his shirt," the complaint states. Roe then approached and threatened to put him in jail, Hamilton says, though she "had no reasonable suspicion that he had committed a crime." Roe then took his "mobile electronic device" and deleted the recording, Hamilton says. Hamilton seeks declaratory judgment that the police violated his constitutional rights under the First, Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, and that St. Charles police have a "policy or custom" of doing so. He also seeks damages for assault and battery. He is represented by Anthony Rothert with the ACLU.